Pining for a spot of tea? How about a shortbread biscuit? Well, you’re in luck. Acton now has its own English Rose Tea Room. Acton residents Trudy Khosla and Deanna Downs opened a pop up tearoom in the 1829 historic building at 504 Main Street, Acton Center. Inspired by the former Tea Pot Tea Room in Boxborough, the two began preparing last October, gathering recipes for their baked goods, techniques for properly preparing tea, and services to serve them.
Open for two days a month, the second Thursday and Saturday, there are two seatings, one in the morning (11:00, 11:15, 11:30) and one in the afternoon (1:00, 1:15, 1:30) with a capacity at each seating of twenty-four. Several types of tea are available as well as four flavors of finger sandwiches and an assortment of treats such as lemon truffle, raspberry chocolate bars, triple espresso brownies, and lavender lemon bars. And what would tea be without scones? Apricot ginger is one of the favorite tea flavors, and strawberry and blackberry Earl Gray are two more. All of this is available for a fixed price. The menu is constantly revolving and is published on their social media sites. Erica Downs, Deanna’s daughter, is in charge of marketing.
Marion Maxwell, an Acton Exchange writer and board member, was on hand for the grand opening of the Tea Room in May. She writes: “My friend and I went to the very first weekend of the English Rose Tea Room and were enchanted. You choose from many flavors of Tea, presented in lovely old teapots and poured into fine bone China teacups. Tables for two to four were set up in the Federalist-period living room and dining room of the brick home in Acton Center. A tasty assortment of sandwiches, scones and finger desserts was attractively presented on three-tiered servers. The servings were too generous to finish, so we were given pretty pink take home boxes for the leftovers. It was a unique and gracious experience.”
There is free street parking and a path leading from the Town Hall parking lot to the tea room. Trudy and Deanna are taking reservations now through October. And, they note: it’s not just for women!
Jeff Brown is a retired general contractor and our beat reporter for business news.